Mohammed

Mohammed is 36 years old and married, with two children. He lives in Sana`a, Yemen.

He has a house. He started it with small capital and took a previous loan from bank. He is hardworking, and he plans to renovate his house. So he applied for a loan of YER 150,000 from AMB to buy construction supplies for his house.

About Al-Amal Microfinance Bank

Al-Amal reaches out to low-income micro-entrepreneurs and small business owners in Yemen with a suite of credit, savings, and insurance products tailored for Muslim borrowers. Before lending through Al-Amal, please consider the following:

1) Due to ongoing security concerns, full due-diligence of Al-Amal was conducted remotely rather than on-site. This makes Al-Amal atypical among Kiva's Field Partners, as Kiva staff have not conducted an on-site assessment. Al-Amal's assessment included in-person meetings with the top management in other, more secure locations in the Middle East.

2) Because Yemen is a new and unstable environment, there is a possibility that future loan repayments could be held indefinitely in the country for regulatory reasons, even if individual borrowers pay back their loans. As a lender to borrowers in Yemen, you accept this additional risk.

Additionally, all of Al-Amal's products are Sharia compliant and customized for its Muslim clients. Most of the loans are structured as Murabaha interest free loans. Al-Amal purchases goods for its borrowers and charges them a markup or fee. Al-Amal is also experimenting with Ijarah loans (an Islamic leasing product). For more information on Islamic microfinance, please click here.

About Housing Loans

Many poor families cannot afford housing that meets their needs. When you make a housing loan on Kiva, you give people access to flexible capital to obtain or improve their homes. Better housing means better health, sanitation, and even educational outcomes for children. A house can also be much more for entrepreneurs who run businesses out of their homes. In this way, housing and small business loans on Kiva share a common purpose: to alleviate poverty and enable families to enjoy more stable lives.